Volunteers working with children, or applying to volunteer with Barnardos HSBCkids.

Volunteers are a vital part of HSBCkids and important to the future of the children we work with. Volunteer's rights to privacy are carefully considered, and are balanced with the rights of children and birth families.

As an applicant to become a Kids Friend the information you give us will be treated confidentially. However, you will not have access to your file until you become an accepted volunteer because we have to fulfill stringent child protection obligations. We aim to preserve the trust relationship between volunteers and Barnardos, and if you have any queries about how information about you will be used please raise them with your worker or their supervisor.

When you become an approved  volunteer it is important that we have detailed personal information on you, to ensure the best possible experience for children.

Collection
Information we collect comes from your original assessment ,  reviews or supervision and any other relevant source. This information may come from information supplied by you, police checks,  (in NSW) Children’s Commissioner, referee information and ongoing supervision. We may collect sensitive health information.

Information will be collected about any family members or any person who may have close contact with children in your household over the age of 14.

Use and disclosure
We use information to assess and make decisions related to your acceptance and matching . This information may also be used for research purposes, however we will seek your permission where possible if identifiable information is used by a research body.

Information is made available to Barnardos staff on a “need to know” basis, this will usually include the supervisor of your worker, and their supervisor. Your name may be recorded on our client database.

Barnardos has an obligation under child welfare law (including Children’s Ombudsman, Guardian or Advocate). Barnardos is obliged to report allegations of abuse in care whether we believe the allegation or not.

Access
Whilst we keep all personal information secure, after you have been accepted as a volunteer you may access your information at any time and may make comments on the files.

If you would like to know what information we hold about you please contact your worker, Program Manager or Senior Manager of your Centre.

DATA Quality
We aim to ensure the accuracy of data

Security
We make all reasonable efforts to ensure that your information is stored securely, both in electronic and physical forms.

Retention
Because of the long-term importance of you to the children and families you care for, we maintain your files after you have completed volunteering with Barnardos Australia.

A summary of information is made available to the birth family of the children you volunteer for, and will also be placed on the child’s file. This is important to the future wellbeing of the child.

We keep some personal information on withdrawn applicants or those who have not been accepted into programs for reference purposes.

Concerns/Disputes
Respecting your privacy is very important to us and we make every effort to ensure this occurs. However if you believe we have breached your privacy rights in any way, or you would like to discuss any issues you may have with our privacy policy we urge you to contact your Centre Director.

We will try to satisfy any questions that you have and correct any errors on our part.